Resilient Children

I've come to the conclusion that a shifting, uncertain world lies in our immediate future. If we are parents or youth leaders, we are charged with helping prepare children to handle that uncertainty with a set of appropriate skills. What are those skills, you ask?

That is what I'm currently researching. I'm trying to understand just what things they need to know to better negotiate a world with fewer known certainities.

The world is changing and rearranging at an increasing rate. We've watched, the last few weeks large financial institutions go away over night. Jobs vanish. Trends change weekly. Technology is only as good as the last new electronic toy.

And yet, we continue to have a need to connect, to trust and have faith in something. We need to have a certain set of values that do not shift with the wind.

So, how will today's children cope with a constantly morphing, endless changing environment of jobs and challenges? Traditionally, we learned to navigate the world around us based on learning the landscape and trusting it would be there tomorrow. Once we learned where to go and what to do, we simply kept following the pattern we'd learned.

Enter the Shifting Future.

Companies are learning that, in order to stay competitive, they need new products that will sell well for a while, then will need to have a "new and improved" model if they're going to stay ahead of their competition. While this has always been the case, the timeframe in which they need to have something "new" is closing faster and faster.

Most jobs our children will hold 15 years from now haven't even been invented yet. and they will do those jobs for a shorter period of time, resulting in a need to change companies and job desciptions more frequently. Many Generation Me'rs (today's twentysomethings) believe that all jobs are temporary, either because they'll be layed off or because they'll quickly move on if it doesn't meet their needs.

Unfortunately, today's children who will lack the ability to constantly see the need to change and move with the currents will find themselves "beatifully equipped to deal with world that no longer exists." (Eric Hoffer). The world will pass them by, leaving them ill fitted to compete.

So, we need to help children become more mobile, flexible and insightful to changing dynamics.

In all honesty, do today's texting, gaming idol-driven teens possess the skills to meet a challenge, work hard to adapt and stay above the fray? Or are they poised to be left behind and wonder why life is so hard. Will they be able to meet their needs or will they continue to stay at home, into their 30's, still trying to decide what to major in.

So, I'm looking for input, for your opinions. What tools and skill will kids need, in the future, in order to shift throught the shifting sands of life and be effective?

Thoughts?